Guest Bloggers: James Frogue & Elizabeth Noelcke On Healthcare Fraud is Worse Than You Think

James Frogue and Elizabeth Noelcke / August 12, 2009

One key area that has been totally ignored in healthcare debate is the jaw-dropping amount of fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. We at the Center for Health Transformation believe that $100 billion a year is a conservative estimate. Our new book, “Stop Paying the Crooks” outlines examples of that waste and offers dozens of suggestions on how to fix the problems.

Consider just two examples: In January, 2009 the Government Accountability Office issued a report that said $32 billion of improper payments were made in the Medicaid program in 2007. Last year, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa estimated that there is $60 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare annually. And now the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders want to create another government-run program along the same model.

The Miami Herald reported last summer that Miami-Dade County submitted bills to Medicare for HIV infusion therapy that were 22 times higher than the rest of the country combined. There are more home health agencies in Miami Dade as of this spring than in the entire state of California. When the Office of Inspector General conducted unannounced visits to 1,581 durable medical equipment supplier in South Florida in 2007, 491 either didn’t exist or were not staffed. (more…)